Civil rights panel says ‘ladies nights’ are illegal

Weekends are an easy sell, but bar owners in northern Colorado, and around the state, have long sought a “magic bullet” promotion to bring patrons in during the weeknight doldrums. There are happy-hour drink specials, trivia nights, music, DJs and, lately, poker nights that have boosted bars’ weekday sales figures.

But the venerable grandfather of specials would have to be “Ladies Night.”

Or would that be the grandmother of specials?

It may be time to tell Grandma to take out her teeth and go to bed.

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission recently issued a ruling affirming that gender-specific drink specials are illegal. From the July 23 ruling: “Ladies night promotions may not involve price differentials or other differential treatment based on a protected class. … Ladies night promotions are an illegal practice and the commission urges public establishments to immediately cease and desist such practices.”

Many feel it’s a bit heavy-handed for the commission to get involved in something deemed trivial compared to the civil rights battles of the past. But don’t tell Steve Horner that.

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The Denver-based author has been embroiled in lawsuits against bar owners and advertisers for promoting ladies nights. He claims that, as a man, his rights have been violated. He recently had a lawsuit tossed out in Denver, in which he was suing Westword newspaper for publishing advertising that promoted ladies’ nights.

“The law provides up to $500 for each offense,” Horner said. “The way the rule reads, the bar is not only liable for the $500, but also for each time this bar advertises. That’s why I took Westword to court for $15,000, the maximum you can sue for in county court.”

Earlier this month, a judge ruled in Westword’s favor saying Horner had no legal standing. But despite this apparent setback for him, the commission’s recent ruling would seem to indicate that Horner has a solid shot at winning his four pending lawsuits, three in Denver County and one in Arapahoe County.

And although he stands to win a not-insubstantial amount of money — and in the process hurt bar owners where it counts — for Horner, the fight is about principle.

“Martin Luther King said, ‘Let us profess our creed,’ ” Horner said. “The 14th Amendment speaks of equal protection under the law. Where is this not a violation? A violation of principle doesn’t need to come to lynching in order to make it so egregious. Maybe if there had been enough Rosa Parks earlier in the century it would have opened the eyes of the Supreme Court sooner. So, I’m saying the law is on my side.”

For Sullivan’s owner Mike Hamm, the decision to drop ladies night at his bar in Fort Collins a few months ago was a purely economic one.

“It actually was a worse turnout than flip night,” Hamm says. “That, and it’s not gender-specific, so both guys and girls come in. What (ladies night) did was bring in a few girls who had literally only a dollar or two — sometimes they would even walk in with a handful of change — and then they would leave nothing (for a tip).”

But although Horner couches his arguments in terms of equal rights for men, he feels he is part of a larger backlash against the rights of other protected classes having gone too far — specifically, women’s rights.

“This has little to do with ladies night,” he admitted. “It’s about telling feminists, ‘I know who wrote these civil rights laws. You wrote these laws based on your who’s-who list of who you think is oppressed.’ What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

Still, despite the dire language and inevitable backlash directed at Horner — he says he has had harassing phone calls and people showing up on his doorstep to call him a “woman-hater” — the Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient isn’t afraid to laugh at himself. He made an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in February.

For his part, bar owner Hamm has a solution, as suggested by a male patron on one of Sullivan’s ladies nights.

“We had a guy ask ‘If I wear a dress here (on ladies night) can I get $1 well drinks, too?’ ” Hamm said. “And I said, ‘Sure you can. Get all your buddies to wear dresses and you can all get cheap drinks. Hell, I’ll even take pictures.’ “

Breakout

Steve Horner

Horner’s books are available at stevehornerbooks.com. He has no plans to file lawsuits against any Larimer County bars that promote ladies nights, but he urges men to “stand up for their own rights.”